Unravelings of a knitting hedgehog owner!

Archive for the ‘hedgehog’ Category

You have seen a couple photos of my darling hedgehogs in the past. While on the road doing his job, my husband found their long lost cousin…… BERTA!

It was not scared of my husband and he was able to get a couple good shots before it became totally bored and wandered back into the woods. I am only joking about the fact that a porcupine and hedgehog are related. The only thing they have in common is that they are both mammals – after that , they are from entirely different families. Believe it or not a porcupine is a rodent and a hedgehog is a member of the a subfamily called: erinaceinae. I know, you never really wanted to come to this blog and learn about porcupines!!

Another difference is that in the defense mode a porcupine with throw their quills and a hedgehog, on the other hand, will curl in a tight ball and retain their quills.

I promised that I would show you a typical hedgehog bonding night today in my blog. I used my male pog Pippin in the pictures….. another day I will show you some pictures of his Momma – Tiggy. Honestly, she is the one that I really can cuddle – she is older and more relaxed. She snuggles inside my big fluffy bathrob and just lays there and falls fast asleep – and she snores!! Really, she does!

Anyhow, let’s start. Hedgehogs run on BIG wheels just like mice, gerbils etc. They eat dried cat food, so their poops are not at all like rodents – more like mini cat poops. (Sorry about all this poop talk, but I have to explain why you have to give them baths! Yup, baths!) Okay, picture this adorable creature running on a huge wheel – peeing and pooping freely – those little feet get dirty. Hedgehog owners call them “poopy boots” and if not washed a couple times a week they could get sore and infected .

So, into the tub he goes! (sorry – a little blurry!) When just washing poopy boots you put in about an inch of water, put a washclothe on the bottom so they don’t slip and let them soak in the water to help loosen the dried poop. Then he comes out and gets held in a towel to help dry him a little before he gets to play in the toddler pool.

Yes, you heard me right…… I have a plastic toddler wading pool that I put on my livingroom floor and after they have dried off in the towel ONE AT A TIME the hedgehog goes into the pool. If put together Mother and son would breed almost within 5 minutes. They don’t know each other lives here!!!

And while in the pool you give a pog his fave toy. What is a hedgehog’s fave toy? A toilet paper roll! They put it on the end of their nose and they run around the pool thinking that you can’t see them so they feel safe! Are you wondering what it looks like the other end of the tub? Well, here it is. Adoreable face isn’t it? Yes!

And, after about 15 minutes of running in the pool with a tube on his head, I scoop him up in a fleece pouch I made for each of them and it is time to either sit on my lap or cuddle next to me. See him in there?

After Pippin is all snug in his sack, I go and get Tiggy out and repeat the whole process. I only take them out every other night. There is so much more to share about my life with my hedgehogs, but I will save that for another entry. I have always wanted to own a hedgehog since falling in love with Mrs. Beatrice Potter’s stories when I was a teenager.